UFC 210: Daniel Cormier didn’t break Anthony Johnson in first fight, ‘Rumble’ broke himself

Daniel Cormier and his camp made it a point to predict that Anthony Johnson would ultimately give up during their first title fight at UFC 187 two years ago, accusing “Rumble” of being a quitter when the going gets tough.

And in an outcome that would’ve made “Mystic Mac” proud, “DC” eventually choked out Johnson in the third round of their championship fight (see it) to claim the vacant Light Heavyweight title.

Admitting to UFC.com that he couldn't bring himself to watch the replay, Johnson said he ultimately broke down and viewed it to see his mistakes. But he is adamant “DC” wasn’t the one who broke him in the end.

“I think I was too afraid to watch it because you never want to see yourself making the mistakes that I made in the fight because they were so critical,” the challenger explained. “It was eating at me the whole time and in the middle of the night, I was like, ‘Screw it!’ and decided to watch the fight,” he said.

After carefully analyzing the three-round war in which he knocked Cormier down early in the bout, “Rumble” says it simply wasn’t the best version of himself out there.

“I still look at it and think, ‘That’s not me out there.’ It’s more of a disappointment because of my performance, not even the fact that I lost; just my performance. That’s the main reason why I didn’t want to watch it, because I wasn’t myself,” he added.

Pointing to many mental errors he said he committed, Johnson says at the end of the day, it wasn’t Cormier who broke him down, but rather, it was himself who was his own worst enemy inside the Octagon.

“You keep making mistakes during a fight, pretty soon you’ll break mentally,” Johnson offered. “Daniel didn’t break me; I broke myself.”

Johnson will have a chance at redemption as he gears up to face “DC” for the second time in the main event of this weekend’s (Sat., April 8, 2017) UFC 210 pay-per-view (PPV) event in Buffalo, New York.

But, it won’t be an easy task by any stretch of the imagination, as he’ll be facing a man who despite being champion, still feels he has a lot to prove.